First of all, sorry for late replies, secondly Wow! The feedback I've come back to is extremely helpful, thank you all so much
Awesome, is that the Arctic Freezer III Pro 360mm like I'm going for? How long have you had it for? Ever had any issues with the VRM cooler playing up like some have?
Are people overthinking AIOs now? Can you even adjust the speed of the pumps? Just plug it in and set some curves for your fans.
I've never had one and wondered if the rated lifespan/warranty was based on an X pump speed vs lifespan?
Yup, they're just wet PWM fans*
*they have fins and go round and round

Love this!
I have an AIO in an ITX case and I run it at 85% constantly. It’s not as noisy and the performance is essentially the same. So long as you set it at a constant speed I’m sure you can set it to whatever you want. Some pumps are considerably noisier at 100%.
This was what I was hoping to do, run it aroudn 80% and get what I wanted out of it, without sacrafising any gains.
Jay2Cents did a video and he tested different pump speeds and showed the cooling for each pump speed.
Around 80% ended up being the best.
This was what I was hoping to do, run it around 80% and get what I wanted out of it, without sacrafising any gains.
If poss I link speed to water temp and mostly run at ~50% and ramp to ~80%. 100% may be pushing water too fast to be efficient and may unnecessarily create more noise but you'd notice I'm sure.
Cheaper AIOs are often more of a plug and go without much control apart from maybe the fans. For a one stop control interface I use Argus Monitor myself.
Nice, this can link them altogether as 1 cable, or with 3 seperate headers for pump, fans, vrm fan, so I'll be using my cpu/pump/spare fan header to do that.
I've ran my artic freezer 3 at full speed scince day one, no problem.
Excellent! How long have you had it now, sorry if I asked before
Run mine at 50% then it ramps up with temp, more so I don't hear the pump over my fans.
I like the idea of that.
I read it should be fine as long as there is not too much change in a short span of time. Like jumping from 30% to 80% then back to 30 when it cools. Keep it at near consistent speeds for longevity. (I don't have concrete proof of this, but it logically makes some sense)
I run mine around 90% base line which curves toward 100 at very high temps. (though I might lower them after reading
@Shaolin Chicken 's comment.)
That makes sense, thanks for that.
I just quickly skimmed through some more videos and the results seem to vary depending on what AIO is used, so it's probably best to do your own testing to find out what works best with regards to temperatures and noise, that is what I am going to do, as my pump emits a high pitched hum when it is on 100%.
Yeah, I thought I'd ask just in case, as a lot of people see to have the AFIIIP360 that I'm 99.9% sure I'm going for
May also depend on your motherboard
And what header you connect
It to
Mine has 2 x pump headers those are fixed at 100%
So if I want pump control
I have to plug into a different header
Pump design may also have an effect on durability
If ran at high or full %
If there's a physical spindle on the impeller
Then over time it can become worn
Causing a nasty rattling sound
If there's no impeller spindle just magnetic levitation
Then full speed shouldn't shorten lifetime due to physical wear
The only difference will be your putting more power through
The pcb which might make electronic parts last a little less time
There's also resonance/vibration to consider
Some pumps at certain rpm may do this
But at higher or lower rpm it stops
Bit similar to a car where the steering wheel may do it at a certain speed
But not above or below that speed
So you might have to adjust rpm because of that
Most of that's worst case scenario probably won't happen
To most people
But still a possibility
End of the day I would just set it to 80--85% range
And see if there's any noise issues
Then adjust from there if required
Don't really see the need for altering pump speed by temperature
Like fans
2 Pump headers!?

Bit posh isn't it

I did wonder about things like the impeller etc...
Yeah, I can see there will be a lot of tweaking to get this bang on, but I'm all for the fun and final satisfaction of dialing it in correct after many hours of swearing

Thanks again for your insights mate!